Gay Pride Celebration 1976

GAY PRIDE FAIR ‘76

Location: Waterfront Park - 1st year

June 26, 1976

https://www.pdxmonthly.com/arts-and-culture/2015/05/40-years-of-portland-pride-june-2015 1976 Lesbian activist Kathleen Saadat organizes Portland’s first Gay Pride march. Also, 1976 Anne and Bill Shepherd and Charles and Rita Knapp launch Parents of Gays (POG), later to become the Portland chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Portland. They set up a table at the Gay Pride rally.

Per GLPAN website: Straight allies Ann and Bill Shepherd (parents of Susie Shepherd), and Charles and Rita Knapp (parents of Kristan Knapp) organize Parents of Gays (POG), later to become PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays) Portland. They set up a table at the Gay Pride rally for people to sign up for their new group.  (http://glapn.org/6022TimelineSince1970.html)  Susie Shepherd’s recollection: “By spring 1976, we were maybe a dozen card tables down by the waterfront--no refreshments, just us and whoever was with us.  Mother's blue 3-fold ‘Parents of Gays’ brochure was there with mom and dad.  Chuck Knapp and daddy made a Parents of Gays sign, black paint on white, that they attached to an old pipe and took turns standing proudly with. There were maybe 200 of us all told.” (From an email Susie Shepherd sent me.) [By George T. Nicola 2017]

also
Lesbian activist Kathleen Saadat and six other community members hold Portland’s first Gay Pride March. Kathleen estimates the group being “less than 200” participants.  Kathleen recalls “Nedra Bagley, Marcia Cutler, Jamie Partridge were part of the march planning committee. I remember marching in the street in downtown Portland north on 4th, I think. We went to Waterfront Park and gathered in front of the stage along with the ‘Turn or Burn’ guys.” The last term is a reference to anti-gay religious zealots who often picketed gay events at least into the late 1980s. (From a Facebook message Kathleen sent me.)[By George T. Nicola 2017]

Below Left Article published in Northwest Gay Review July 1976 issue. Below Right, as part of the Gay Pride Fair, Epicenter an all-age club sponsored by Eastwood Community Church had a “Portland Gay Pride Week-End Dance”

Above from June 1, 1986, Just Out newspaper. RIGHT Gay Pride Fair mentioned is a calendar listing in the Changing Men newspaper in June 1976.